Transition to the Roman Empire
The '''Transition to the Roman Empire' lasted from about 134 BC until 30 BC. It began with the rise of the first of a series of radical Roman statesmen, Tiberius Gracchus. It then ended with the victory of Gaius Octavian over his rival Mark Anthony at Actium, which ushered in the Roman Empire. For 350 years, the Roman Republic had struggled, grown, survived, and thrived. Through it all, the Romans had never turned away from their most basic fundamental principle; that no king shall reign in Rome. Every year men stood for election, every year free ballots were cast by free citizens, and every year power was transferred peacefully. And it must be said that the Senate's track record was a remarkable one. Yet, Roman success would be the undoing of the Roman Republic. In the years after 134 BC, the republican system could not stem the tide of greed and ambition that lurks in the hearts of men. Rome faced a treacherous new political environment where economic inequality disrupted traditional ways of life, and political polarisation and rampant corruption sparked violent clashes. Men like the Gracchi Brothers, and Marius and Sulla set dangerous new precedents, that Julius Caesar simply took to their logical conclusion. In defiance of what had once been held good and true by the Romans, a century of civil war and violent class conflict, eventually led the people to the safe and comforting arms of one man; Octavian Caesar Augustus, the first emperor of the Roman Empire. History Late Republic For 350 years, the Roman Republic had survived for two overarching reasons: the lower class Plebs had not been so impoverished that they were driven to violent revolution to improve their lot in life; and the upper class Patrician families were unified enough that their rivalries did not spill-out into the public sphere. The very success of the Roman Republic, against Carthage and in Greece, inevitably had political consequences at home, with a range of social ills that would eventually prove to be its undoing. With no other great powers left to challenge their dominance of the Mediterranean, the Romans lost their most critical unifying force; a worthy opponent. The political system of the Republic always skewed towards oligarchy, designed for a small number of wealthy Patrician families to hold onto power. And prolonged warfare had reinforced the power and the moral authority of the ruling elite in the Senate. Empire offered new opportunities to generals and provincial governors, with immense fortunes to be made, and made quickly; much of this was legal, some was simply looting and theft. With exposure to the East, the stoic foundations of the Rome were crumbling, replaced by lavish homes and ostentatious displays of wealth. Patrician solidarity to break down, as immediate personal ambition and cutthroat rivalry took the place of long-term political stability. Meanwhile, those who were lucky enough to amass wealth in imperial enterprise laid it out in the only good investment available, land. The effect in the long run was to concentrate property in large estates usually, worked by slaves who arrived in Italy in the hundreds of thousands; Rome had always had slaves, but it was now a full-blown slave economy. Meanwhile, division between the Patrician and the Plebs had always bubbled just below the surface in the Roman Republic, and now the Plebs had plenty of grievances that seemed to go unheeded. The backbone of the Republic had always been the free citizen Plebeian smallholder, who met the property requirement for service in the legions. After conquering half the known world, these citizen soldiers returned to find there was no longer an assured place in mainland Italy, now that slaves ran the large estates. Many formerly upstanding citizens found themselves gradually sinking into poverty, with little choice but to sell their land to the ruling elite, make his way to the cities, and fend for himself as best he could. Yet as a citizen he still had a vote, and to those with wealth and political ambition he became someone to buy or to intimidate. The champions of the people had a wide range of motives, many of them good, but ambitious demagogues would find it all too easy to stoke the resentment of the masses in order to get their own piece of the pie. Gracchi Brothers 133 BC was the year that many later Romans themselves pointed to as the key turning point in the Roman Republic, when as one ancient writer put it "daggers first entered the forum". That was the year that a disaffected young Patrician called Tiberius Gracchus (d. 133 BC) was elected one of the ten Tribute of the Plebs, on the wildly popular call for aggressive agrarian reform. His idea was to enforce the legal but widely ignored limit of owning 125 hectares of land, in order to settle landless citizens; obviously effecting almost every wealthy Senator. Not everyone in the Senate was blind to the need for reform, but what alarmed them most about Tiberius was his unscrupulous use of a loophole to bypass the Senate. He instead passed his law through an assembly of people, which while legal, was against longstanding tradition. As the political turmoil escalated, the Senate persuaded another Tribune to veto his motion. Tiberius improvised a way out of the impasse by pushing the assembly to impeach the man; a clear violation of a basic tenet of the office. He then brought Roman politics to a standstill, until the law was finally enacted. However, Tiberius' attempt to run for a second term as Tribute was too much for a small cabal of conservative Patricians; the enmity between the Tiberius and the Senate was deeply personal by this stage. During a public rally for Tiberius, the nobles incited their own mob violence in the streets of Rome, and during the ensuing riot Tiberius was clubbed to death. Nine years later, Tiberius' younger brother Gaius Gracchus (d. 121 BC) would follow in his brother’s footsteps, and try to pass even more radical and far-reaching reforms. Where Tiberius failed to win a second term as Tribune, Gaius succeeded and met his own downfall seeking a third term. Among his legislation were further agrarian reform, a cap on the grain prices, a new anti-corruption commission, and a failed attempt to expand Roman citizenship, an issue that would be revisited in the Social War (91–88 BC). Gaius was more practical minded than his brother, and therefore considered more dangerous by the Senatorial class. As soon as his second term in office was over, he was brought trumped-up legal charges by his political enemies. Gaius was forced to flee Rome, and was probably murdered in exile. Gracchi brothers left an indelible mark on Rome, reigniting class tensions that had be dormant for centuries. Yet the Senate harden itself to any of the much needed reforms, engendering further division between the Patricians and the Plebs. In their stubborn refusal to let go of the old order, they practically guaranteed it would be smashed apart. Meanwhile, other populist politicians would look to the practical example of the Gracchi, that long-standing laws and traditions could be broken with impunity, if supported by a loud enough mob. The streets of Rome would soon run red with the blood of mobs and counter-mobs, egged on by leaders who craved power at any cost. Marius and Sulla The next in line of people's champions was Gaius Marius '(d. 86 BC), who would go down in history as the great re-maker of the Roman legions. One of the important consequence of the long struggle with Carthage, was that a "''new man" could now rise through the ranks on merit. Marius was born a commoner, and volunteered for service in the legions at a early age, where he began his slow and agonising climb up the military and political ranks; elected Military Tribune in 134 BC, Tribune of the Plebs in 120 BC, and Praetor (one rung below Consul) in 116 BC. During his military career, Marius had seen for himself the corruption of many generals, dragging out campaigns to win more plunder, and accepting bribes from their adversary. One such campaign was the Jugurthine War (111–104 BC), in the Roman allied state of Numidia (modern day Libya). When a dynastic succession struggle descended into full-fledged civil-war, Rome felt compelled to intervene. As the campaign dragged on, in 107 BC Marius was swept to power as Consul on a platform against political and military corruption. Once elected, however, he found that bottling up the rebellious Numidian prince was not as easy as he had claimed. While his military brilliance failed on this occasion, Marius still found a way, convincing a local chieftain to betray the princeling and turn him over in chains; he was eventually publicly executed during Marius' Triumph in Rome. At around the same time, a long dormant menace to the north of Italy was back with vengeance; the dreaded Gauls. The numerous tribes of the Celtic Gauls and ethnically and linguistically distinction Germans were often on the move. Two Germanic tribes, the Cimbri and Teutones, even pushed so far south as to threaten Roman southern France and northern Italy. After the legions suffered successive defeats in 109 BC and 105 BC, the call was made for Marius. In order to fight this new threat, Marius insisted on restructuring the fundamental shape of the army; the '''Marian Reforms. First, he relaxed the property requirement for recruitment, allowing the unemployed Roman masses to enlist in military service; property requirement would be entirely eliminated around 100 BC. Second, he abandoned the traditional three-line Manipular formation, in favour of three rapidly cycling ranks so that fresh troops were always at the front. Thirdly, he got rid of the unwieldy baggage train, and ordered soldiers to carry their own regulated equipment, making the legions more mobile; the legions earned the nickname "Marius’ Mules". And finally, he rebranded the army as a career choice rather than an obligation, helped by the policy of promoting strictly on merit; inevitably this was at the expense of ambitious young Patricians. Having built an army capable of defeating the Gauls, Marius promptly did just that. At the battles of Aquae Sextiae (102 BC) and of Vercellae (101 BC) both tribes were virtually annihilated. The Marian Reforms resulted in much more effective armies, but the changed nature of the army also had unforeseen consequences that would be all too evident in Marius' lifetime. The Senate was notoriously lax at paying soldiers and granting land to retired veterans, thus soldiers became increasingly reliant on generals who could secure war-booty. The loyalty of the legions had been subtly shifted away from the Roman Senate and towards the generals who led them. By the 1st-century BC, the Italian peninsula had stood firmly together for hundred of year, even against the clever might of Hannibal Barca. Yet even now, full citizenship of the Roman Republic still barely extend much beyond the hinterland of the city of Rome itself. Instead a complex collection of alliances that dated back to the Samnite Wars endured. Since the turmoil with the Gracchi Brothers, the conservative faction in the Senate had hardened itself against much needed reforms, and rather than making obviously just concessions to their fellow Italians, the tone deaf Senate took a hard line stance. It would take two bloody years of civil-war, the Social War (91–88 BC), for the Italians to finally be granted their simple request for citizenship. The man who emerged as the hero of the war was the general Lucius Cornelius Sulla '(d. 78 BC). The son of a politically unimportant Patrician family, Sulla had been Marius' protege early in his military career, but a rift had since developed between the pair as Marius invariably drew the limelight to himself. After the Social War, Roman politics were dominated by Anatolia (modern day Turkey), where King Mithridates of Pontus had taken advantage of Rome’s troubles to expand into Roman territory and threaten Greece. By 88 BC the east demanded urgent action, Sulla was the natural choice to lead a Roman campaign. However, the aging Marius had his mind set on one last fling with glory. Through the use of gangs of thugs in the streets of Rome, the Senate was intimidated into transferring the command to Marius. Sulla's response was totally unprecedented. He made for the legionary camp preparing for service in the east, and marched instead on Rome, forcing Marius to flee to Africa and putting the Senate firmly back in control. Yet as soon as Sulla was far away in the east, Marius returns to Rome with his own army. There the old general initiated a gruesome purge of his political opponents, before declaring himself Consul with his protégé Lucius Cornelius Cinna; Marius died of natural causes after only thirteen days in office. Meanwhile, Sulla enjoyed considerable military success in Anatolia. After besieging his Greek ally Athens into submission, Mithridates was resoundingly defeated at the Battle of Chaeronea (86 BC). Despite this, Cinna and the followers of Marius in Rome declare him an ''"enemy of the state". Sulla’s return from the east in 83 BC, with an army of 40,000 men and much treasure, led to a brief but full-scale civil-war. Multiple armies were sent to heed his passage, but the first deserted en-masse to the wildly popular and charismatic Sulla, and the second, led by Cinna himself, but he was murdered in a mutiny of his own soldiers. With army generals now flooding to Sulla’s cause, nothing could stop his march on Rome. The Battle of the Colline Gate (November 82 BC), just outside the walls of Rome, brought the civil war to a close. The supporters of the Marius faction would reap what they had sown, in yet another orgy of butchery that surpassed all previous excesses in terms of organisation; rewards were offered for the murder of anyone on a proscription list with 4,700 names. The Senate was now in a mood to agree with anything that Sulla might suggest, and he was appointed Dictator for life, reviving the role for the first time since the Second Punic War over a century before. While Marius had been a Pleb, Sulla was a Patrician, thus his dictatorship saw power decisively returned to the staunchly conservative faction of the Senate; the Tribunes of the Plebs were stripped of much of their powers. Yet Sulla was also a traditionalist, and after two years as Dictator, he laid down his office and became merely Consul. At the end of the year, after seeing to the election of two reliable Consuls, Sulla retired. He died believing he had put the Roman Republic back on track of stable government. The epitaph on his gravestone, summed up his life as well as anything anyone else might say; "no greater friend, no worse enemy". Yet the ambitious men who followed this singular figure in Roman history, like Crassus, Pompey, Caesar, and Augustus, focused on the facts of Sulla’s life and career, and the power he had gained through brute force. Marcus Tullius Cicero, Rome's greatest orator in the dying years of the Republic, would comment that Pompey once said, "If Sulla could, why can't I?" Pompey and Crassus In the decades after Sulla, political life in Rome was increasingly dominated by two men; '''Gnaeus Pompey Magnus (d. 48 BC) and Marcus Licinius Crassus (d. 53 BC). Both were outstanding examples of a relatively new trend in Roman history; men who pursued their careers with unflinching single-mindedness. These were the natural successors to Sulla and Marius. The era of noble adherence to the laws and traditions of the Republc was dead, and the era of the naked power-grab was at hand. Both men were from minor Patrician families, and both had supported Sulla during the civil-war. However, while Crassus had played the more crucial role in Sulla’s return to Rome, much of the glory went to the more charismatic Pompey. Pompey had married Sulla's stepdaughter, and managed to wheedle a Triumph out of his father-in-law for successful campaigns against Marian rebels in Sicily and Hispania; his suffix Pompey Magnus or Pompey the Great was bestowed by Sulla himself to mock his arrogant demand. So, while Pompey was be idolised, Crassus had to be content as the respected richest man in Rome, having made his first fortune through profiteering in Sulla's proscription. This was the first chapter what would be the defining theme of both their lives. Pompey was just another ambitious general, and Crassus just another fat-cat on the make prior to the Third Servile War (73–71 BC); the first two Servile Wars were relatively local affairs in Sicily in 135 BC and 104 BC. But after the slave revolt, both would turn their well-deserved and not-so well-deserved acclaim into a shared Consulship. In 73 BC, seventy gladiators and slaves fought their way out of a gladiator school in Capua. Spartacus and Crixus soon emerged as the leaders of the escapees. They spent the summer raiding the rich country estates in the region, gaining plunder and freeing more slaves. Now numbering in their thousands, they established an encampment on the densely forested slopes of Mount Vesuvius to winter and train. It was here that a local Roman militia caught up with them, and blocked their escape. Displaying the kind of ingenuity that would make them such a formidable force, Spartacus had his men make ladders and rappel down the cliffs, where they outflanked and annihilated the militia. A second militia sent after them met with similar results, adding more weapons and armour to their stockpile. With these successes, more and more slaves flocked to Spartacus’ cause, swelling their ranks eventually to some 120,000. By 72 BC, the alarmed Senate dispatched two Consular armies to put an end to the slave revolt. At this point, the slaves split, with Crixus peeling off some 30,000 men and heading south to continue plundering, while Spartacus and the remainder heading north out of Italy. The legions were no militia, and Crixus’ force was quickly defeated and killed. Spartacus in turn became trapped in the Alps between the two Consular armies. However, Spartacus acted decisively, defeating the army to the north, before wheeling around and routing the second army. At this point, Crassus, famed as a harsh disciplinarian, was given the command and brought the war to a brutal conclusion. For unclear reasons, Spartacus spurned the opportunity to escape Italy, and moved south with his force, making for the toe of Italy with the intention of crossing to Sicily. When he was betrayed by the pirates bribed to ferry them to the island, Crassus had them trapped. In desperation, Spartacus’ army tried to break through the Roman blockade. Although 5,000 succeeded, the rest were killed or captured; Spartacus himself is assumed to have died. It was at this point that Pompey returned to Italy, having recently putting down a revolt in Hispania. He defeated this last 5,000 exhausted and fleeing slaves, thus unjustly claiming half the credit for ending the Third Servile War. And it was a grisly end too, with 6,000 captives crucified along the Appian Way, as a stark reminder to slaves everywhere what happens if they forget their place in the world. Nonetheless, Crassus, always the businessman, made a deal with Pompey to stand as co-Consuls the very next year; both men refused to stand-down their armies until the Senate agreed to make sure the election produced the result that was in everyone's best interest. While Pompey and Crassus were making their name in Rome, a campaign that offered glory and riches in abundance was already underway in the east. In 74 BC, King Nicomedes of Bithynia died and willed his kingdom to Rome; a small strategically located kingdom straddling the Hellespont in Anatolia, and later the home Costantine's capital of Constantinople. Yet a resurgent Mithridates of Pontus also wanted the highly coveted territory, sparking the Third Mithridatic War (73-63 BC). The Senate ordered Lucius Licinius Lucullus (d. 56 BC), another close ally of Sulla, to deal with Mithridates. By all accounts Lucullus’ campaign in the east was progressing well, with victories at the Battles of Tigranocerta (69 BC) and Artaxata (68 BC), but almost inevitably Pompey became eager to succeed to the eastern command. Pompey also happened to be in the region, having recently successfully campaigned in a brilliantly planned operation against pirates in the Mediterranean. Through an ruthless campaign to undermine Lucullus’ leadership in his own legions and in Rome, and he quickly succeeded to the eastern command. It was in these campaigns in the east that Pompey would truly earn his honorific Magnus. Pompey dealt swiftly with Mithridates, first peeling off him allies in Armenia, and then chasing him across Asia Minor, until he was finally decisively defeated at the Battle of the Lycus (66 BC); Mithridates himself committed suicide afterwards. Pompey then went further, eager to emulate Alexander the Great who he so admired. The entire eastern Mediterranean, from Anatolia through Syria to Palestine, was in a state of turmoil. Anatolia was subdued, Syria was annexed in 64 BC as a Roman province, and Palestine soon followed too with Jerusalem finally falling to him after a three-month siege. Throughout the region Pompey established an administrative systems of provinces and client-states that would preserve peace in the coming years. They would also bring in vast new quantities of tax, literally double the annual tax coming into the Roman treasury. Pompey's third triumph in 61 BC trumpeted the grandeur of his achievement, but the Senate now feared him as a potential tyrant. For two years political obstruction prevented Pompey from fulfilling his obligations to his veteran legions of plots of land on the Italian peninsula. The situation brought him into a natural alliance with two other powerful but frustrated men; his long-time rival Crassus and an up-and-coming young popularist politician called Julius Caesar. Catilinarian Conspiracy While the Catiline Conspiracy (63 BC) was a minor affair in the broad sweep of Roman history, it well-illustrates the sickness that had taken hold at the very heart of the Roman Republic. The only rule was power by any means necessary, because once in power the rules could be changed and those who disagreed eliminated. That a scheming bungler like Lucius Sergius Catilina (62 BC) could dream big egotistical dreams of ruling Rome was a sign of the times. Catilina was a ambitious minor Patrician noble with a scandal filled past, that he had successfully dodged through bribery; an accusation of adultery with a vestal virgin, and corruption as governor in Africa. In 63 BC, he stood for election as Consul. With Catilina running on a platform of debt cancellation, the nobility had no choice but to throw their support behind the provincial "new man", Marcus Tullius Cicero '''(d. 43 BC). Cicero was born into a relatively wealthy Plebeian family from Arpinum about 100 miles from Rome, and had battled his way up the Roman political ladder through his own drive. Fortunately he was one of the most gifted men of his generation, garnering a reputation as the greatest orator of his day. Although he made his name successfully prosecuting the governor of Sicily, whose corruption far exceeded even the low standards of the day, Cicero firmly believed in the continued dominance of the Senate. In the Consul election of 63 BC, Cicero won, and an embittered Catilina subsequently conspired to overthrow the government. Until now, the quasi-religious sovereignty of elections had never been question, but even that was breaking-down. Catilina gathered around him a collection of corrupt ex-Senators, embittered veterans, and indebted commoners, with the planned coup to be kicked-off by assassinating Cicero himself. However, Cicero was tipped-off and the plot foiled, forcing Catilina to flee the city to an army gathering near Etruria. The next part of the coup was in turn thwarted, when the conspirators tried to entice some Gauls to join their cause, who promptly betrayed them to earn the good will of the Senate. Five conspirators in Rome were arrested and executed at once; an act that would haunt Cicero’s career, and led to him being briefly exiled by his political enemies some years later. Yet their deaths did cause the conspiracy to promptly imploded. Plagued by desertions, the army in Etruria was easily routed, with Catilina himself killed in the fighting. Caesar’s Early Career Not many men build a career so effectively that their name means "emperor" two-thousand years later. Yet such is the case of Guais '''Julius Caesar (d. 44 BC), the origin of both the German Kaiser and Russian Tsar. Julius Caesar was born into a Patrician family of ancient pedigree but little wealth or politically influential. In his youth, his marriage to Cornelia a daughter of Cinna drew the ire of the dictator Sulla, and he was forced into hiding during the Dictator’s reign of terror. He eventually found refuge in the legions, serving with distinction in the east and rising rapidly through the ranks. After Sulla’s death, Caesar returned to Rome and began his career in politics as a prosecuting advocate. A famous story from his early years shows his ruthless determination. In 75 BC, Caesar was captured by pirates, while sailing home from Rhodes where he study at a famous school of oratory; the same school Cicero had attended. While his ransom was being raised, he promised the pirates he would execute them once he’d secured his freedom. They assumed it was bluster, but he raised a private force, tracked the pirates down, and had them crucified all the same. Meanwhile, Caesar's political career was equally meteoric through cultivating friendships with both Pompey and his jealous rival Crassus: he was elected Military Tribune in 72 BC; a Senator in 68 BC; Chief Priest of Rome in 63 BC; and Praetor (one step below Consul) in 62 BC. He showed himself to be as deft in politics, as he would later prove with the sword - competent and fair, stern but understanding. He eventually emerged the de-facto leader of the populist faction in the Senate which favoured the cause of the Plebs, and opposed to the conservative interests of the Patricians. First Triumvirate Meanwhile, Pompey had returned from his conquests in the east, to find the Senate wary of him as a potential tyrant. In fact he was no popularist reformer, and always seemed content to bask in the glow of his own fame. In the coming years, Pompey would be the Senate’s most loyal defender. Yet for two years, he failed to fulfil his modest obligation of plots of land for his veterans, owing to political obstruction by opponents in the Senate. Caesar, on good terms with both Pompey and Crassus, saw advantage in an alliance, and through deft negotiations reconciled the intense rivals; the First Triumvirate. Together the three men had the influence to virtually control the Senate. To cement the alliance, Pompey married Caesar's only child, Julia. In 59 BC, Caesar was elected Consul. Through political influence and mob intimidation, he passed a swathe of reforms; laws for agrarian reform and against corruption in provincial administration. Although it was obvious that Caesar was undertaking much needed reform, his recklessness pushed Cicero, the greatest orator of his day, into a confrontational position. In retaliation, Caesar succeeded in having Cicero exiled for his actions during the Catilinarian Conspiracy. At the end of his Consulship, Caesar could normally expect one provincial governorship for one year; instead he secured for himself two provinces across southern Gaul for five years, later extended to ten years. Caesar in Gaul By this time, Caesar’s political career had left him deep in debt, but Gaul gave him ample opportunity for military adventurism and plunder. The Gallic Wars (58-50 BC) would be one of the most famous campaigns in history, not least because of Caesar’s brilliant flair for propaganda and self-promotion. Caesar needed legal cover before he could begin his campaigns. The excuse came in 58 BC, with the mass migration of the Helvetii tribe, moving west fleeing pressure from other Germanic tribes. When the some of Rome's Gallic allies called for Roman help, Caesar immediately led his legions into Gaul. He defeated the Helvetii first as they cross the Rhone River and again at the Battle of Bibracte (58 BC); the Gallic mass charge was no match for the Roman slow mechanical efficiency. The remaining Helvetii were forced to return to their homeland, but Caesar’s victory had triggered a new flood of Germanic tribes over the Rhine, starting with the Suebi. Deep in enemy territory, far from supplies, Caesar tried to negotiate for the Suebi to withdraw but they refused. However, neither did they attack. Spies within the enemy camp revealed that the Germanic omens precluded a battle, so seizing his opportunity, Caesar attacked. Despite being outnumbered, he was victorious and forced the surviving Suebi back across the Rhine. For the next few years, Caesar used a savvy strategy of divide-and-conquer to slowly assert Roman dominance over all of Gaul. To stem the flow of Germanic tribes into Gaul, he ordered a bridge built across the Rhine, to cow the tribes with the knowledge their homelands were not safe from Rome. He also made two preliminary expeditions to the mysterious island of Britain (the later province of Britannia), though little was achieved. By 52 BC, it had become clear to the natives that the Romans were here to stay, prompting the last major Gallic uprising under the chieftain Vercingetorix. Recognizing that the Romans had the upper hand on the battlefield, he fought a scorched earth guerrilla campaign to deprive them of supplies. Although, the Romans suffered defeats along the way like the Battle of Gergovia, Caesar finally besieged Vercingetorix at the fortress of Alesia. In what is considered one of Caesar's greatest military achievements and a classic example of siege warfare, he beat off a huge Gallic relief force, and eventually forced Vercingetorix and his starving army to surrender. Gaul was a Roman province and would remain so until the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Caesar's Civil War By 54 BC, Pompey was the only member of the First Triumvirate left in Rome. Caesar continued his campaigns in Gaul, while Crassus, still dreaming of a triumph, had undertaken a campaign in the east against Parthian Persia; the beginning of a rivalry between Rome and Persia that would continue for over 600 years. That same year, Julia, the daughter of Caesar and wife of Pompey, died in childbirth. Shortly afterward, Crassus was killed at the Battle of Carrhae (May 53 BC) during his shambolic campaign. With those two events, the Triumvirate was broken. Caesar desperately tried to salvage his partnership, by offering Pompey a second marriage alliance, but instead Pompey married the daughter of a staunch conservative and political opponent of Caesar. Now fearing Caesar as a possible tyrant, an escalating showdown ensued between Caesar and the Pompey-led Senate. The Senate insisted that Caesar must disband his army and return to Rome as a private citizen, while Caesar demanded to be allowed to stand for Consul in absentia to protect himself from legal prosecution. Caesar also sent his loyal lieutenant Marcus Antonius, known to history as Mark Anthony, to Rome as Tribute of the Plebs to block any move to have him declared an enemy of the state. However, on the day of the vote, when Mark Anthony tried to exercise his veto he was manhandled out of the Senate; Caesar would make a big deal of this, to stir up his troops. Having been declared an enemy of the state and with few other options, on 10 January 49 BC, Caesar and just one legion marched across the Rubicon River out of his province and into the home peninsula; consciously and irrevocably launching Caesar's Civil War (49–45 BC). With Caesar moving fast, Pompey and the Senate panicked and fled to Roman Greece via Brundisium. Unlike Marius and Sulla who after marching on Rome had used their power to murder their enemies, Caesar showed remarkable restraint. He focused on stabilising the state, dealing with the grain supply problems and economic meltdown caused by the outbreak of civil war. Then, leaving Mark Anthony in charge in Rome, Caesar march his legions to Hispania in astonishing 27-day, to neutralise Pompey’s support there. To pacify Hispania would need no actual fighting. The Pompeian army immediately began deserting, seeing how rich Caesar’s legions had become under the great general. The leaders had little option but to surrender. Caesar then showed astonishing leniency considering the times, merely disbanding the remains of the legions. This would stand him in good stead as the civil war continued; while his men were fighting for their lives, his enemies could hope for Caesar’s mercy. Afterwards, Caesar returned via Italy to renew his pursuit of Pompey in Greece. Caesar ordered an almost unprecedented winter crossing of the Adriatic, not once but twice because he didn’t have enough ships to ferry his entire army. Although the first crossing was successful, the second was blocked by Pompey’s navy, leaving Caesar in a very precarious position. Pompey, with his larger and better supplied army, besieged Caesar near the port of Dyrrhachium. However in the spring, Mark Anthony lit a fire under the second half of Caesar's army, and successfully ran the blockade to join-up with him. Pompey did eventually breach Caesar’s siege-works, but Caesar and his army managed to slip away. Although the retreat soon descended into a panicked and disorderly rout, Pompey failed to press his advantage, fearing Caesar’s reputation for clever feints. The civil war would culminate in the decisive Battle of Pharsalus (48 BC). Although, Caesar was outnumbered almost two to one, his disciplined veteran legions held the centre, while a hidden legion on the right flank drove-off Pompey’s supposedly superior cavalry. The legion on the flank then swept around behind Pompey line’s, and rolled his army up like a carpet. Pompey himself fled the battlefield a broken man, and made his way to Egypt. There he was assassinated by court ministers of Ptolemy XIII, hoping to curry favour with Caesar. The conspiring ministers could not have been more wrong. Having been denied of his coup-de-grace of pardoning Pompey, Caesar decided to interveve in the civil war ongoing in Egypt between Ptolemy XIII and his sister Cleopatra VII. Although Caesar was besieged in Alexandria for several months, he was eventually reinforced and swept aside Ptolemy's army. Cleopatra was installed as ruler in Egypt, the last pharaoh of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt. The two famously became lovers, with Caesar fathering a son with her. The civil war would carry on with pockets of resistance for another two years. There were Senatorial forces under Metellus Scipio and Cato the Younger in north Africa, and under Pompey's sons in Hispania, but the end result of the civil war was rarely in doubt. Ides of March In Rome, Caesar used his absolute power as Dictator for life as a vehicle to right the ship of state. He instituted an ambitious agenda of reforms: he performed the first proper census in years, to banish corruption from the state-subsidised grain supply; offered citizenship to foreign professionals who moved to Rome to boost the economy; subsidised the urban poor to move out to the provinces; and embarked on a bold and far reaching series of public-works projects across Italy. He also expanded the ranks of the depleted Senate with important men from across the provinces regardless of national origins. However, his most enduring legacy would be the introduction of the Julian calendar, which remains in effect to this day, almost untouched. The seeds of disenchantment with Caesar’s autocratic rule grew gradually. Early in his rule during his triumph, Caesar had paraded giant depictions of his defeated enemies through the streets of Rome, but the masses reacted badly to the depiction of Cato the Younger; no one actually liked the old curmudgeon, but should they really be revelling in his death. Caesar then got himself embroiled in a pointless public spat with Cicero over a eulogy for Cato, which only made him seem petulantly unhinged. His enemies most damning accusation was that Caesar intended to crown himself king, rumours that he himself conspicuously failed to distance himself from. When Caesar began preparing for another war against Parthian Persia to avenge Crassus, his enemies realised that their time was running out. The conspirators were a collection of long-time enemies like Gaius Cassius, disaffected former allies who felt sidelined like Decimus Brutus, and Republican idealists like Marcus Brutus. On 15 March 44 BC, the Ides of March, Caesar was assassinated, stabbed 23 times on the floor of the Senate House. Far from restoring the Roman Republic as the conspirators hope, they had launched a chain of events that would lead within twenty years to its end, and the establishment of the Roman Empire. Second Triumvirate In the aftermath of Caesar’s death, the assassins and supposed restorers of the Roman Republic made two crucial mistakes. Firstly, they had no plan for who would fill the power vacuum after the Dictator was gone. It was Caesar’s loyal friend, Mark Anthony, who took the initiative; he was after all the elected Consul for that year. He calmed the situation by making a truce with the Senate in return for ratifying all of Caesar's actions. Secondly, they miscalculated the reaction of the masses to the death. Caesar had been a powerful advocaat of the interests of the common people, and, egged on by Mark Anthony’s stirring funeral oration, the enraged masses forced the conspirators to flee Rome. Nonetheless, Mark Anthony was faced with a dangerous new rival for power when Caesar's will was opened. His great-nephew Gaius Octavian was named his posthumous adopted son and principal heir; the future Emperor Augustus. There did not seem to be anything remarkable about the practically unknown young man. He was fragile and prone to sickness, but also an able student and most critically, seemed to attract the right kind of friends. He would conquer the Roman empire together with his childhood friends Marcus Agrippa and Gaius Maecenas; Agrippa handling the armies and Maecenas some of the politics. Displaying some of the steel in his heart, Octavian acted decisively, building up a personal army from Caesar's loyal veterans already gathered for the war in Parthian Persia. Meanwhile, at the end of his consulship, Mark Anthony made for his assigned province of Cisalpine Gaul. However, Decimus Brutus, one of Caesar’s assassins, refused to give up his governorship, and Anthony besieged him at Mutina. The Senate, seeing the younger heir as the lesser of the two evils, appointed Octavian a Senator and ordered him to lift the siege; the Post-Caesarian Civil War (44–43 BC). Together, Decimus and Octavian forced Mark Anthony to withdraw into Gaul, but, when ordered to pursue, Octavian refused; he had plans of his own. While the Senate tried to maintain some control of the situations, the state was again descending into civil war. In a meeting near Bologna in October 43 BC, Octavian, Antony, and silent partner Marcus Lepidus agreed to unite against their common enemies and seize power in a new alliance; the Second Triumvirate (43-33 BC). Together they would deal with the leaders of Caesar's assassination, Marcus Brutus and Gaius Cassius, who were gathering an army in the east; the Liberators' Civil War (44–42 BC). In order to pay for this campaign, the triumvirs set in motion a brutal reign of terror, stripping some 2,500 Senators and opponents of their wealth, property and lives; Cicero the eloquent defender of the Republican ideal was among the victims. It was a practice that Julius Caesar had steadfastly refused to engage in, not seen since the days of Sulla. The army of Octavian and Mark Antony, and the army Brutus and Cassius met at the Battle of Philippi (42 BC). Although Octavian was present at the battle, he was sick throughout. The victory at Philippi was entirely Mark Anthony’s, and it would be his finest hour; in defeat Cassius and Brutus both committed suicide. Division of Territory Power now resided in Rome in the hands of essentially two men in an uneasy alliance and barely hidden rivalry. Octavian’s spheres of influence would be Italy and the west, and Mark Anthony the east; Lepidus, a weak man accidentally thrust into prominence, quickly found himself with nothing, in what had always been a struggle between the pair. In the west, Octavian was left with the tougher of the tasks: the bureaucratic nightmare of demobilising tens-of-thousands of veterans and finding them land on an already overcrowded peninsula; and open rebellion on Sicily led by Sextus Pompey, son of the great general. With a fleet that far outgunned anything Octavian could muster, Sextus began a blockade of Italy. Despite some setbacks, Octavian’s general Agrippa spent a whole year building a new fleet on Lake Avernus, and then linking it to the sea with a canal. In 36 BC, Octavian and Agrippa set sail for Sicily, where the naval fleet of Sextus was almost entirely destroyed at the Battle of Naulochus. At the same time in the east, Mark Anthony had by far the more glamorous position. He settled first in Anatolia, indulging in a lavish lifestyle, while reorganising the unsatisfactory political arrangements that had governed the region since the day of Pompey Magnus. He deposed the weak-willed client-monarchies, and installed capable administrators he could trust. Meanwhile, he began raising money for the long dreamed of conquest of Parthian Persia. His gaze naturally turned south to the rich lands of Egypt, and he formed an alliance with Cleopatra who needed a new Roman patron to maintain her on her throne; the two also became lovers despite Anthony already being married to Octavian’s sister. In 36 BC, Mark Anthony finally marched 100,000 troops into the Parthian Empire. As with Crassus almost 20 years before, the invasion was a disaster. Anthony’s slow moving and under-guarded baggage train was attacked by the Parthians, destroying all his siege-works, and ruining his plans to capture a major city to establish winter quarters. He had little choice but to turn back for the Mediterranean, on a savage march which lost him a quarter of his men in the harsh mountain snows and also most of his respect as a general. Octavian and Anthony’s Civil War The fractures in the Second Triumvirate came early and often, and it always seemed destined to fall apart. In 41 BC, Mark Anthony’s brother and first wife conspired to ferment rebellion against Octavian in Italy. It proved a protracted but ultimately minor uprising, and just how much Anthony knew about it remains unclear. In 40 BC during Sextus Pompey’s occupation of Sicily, both Octavian and Anthony made overtures to ally with him against the other. The conflict eventually led to Anthony briefly besieging Octavian in Brundisium, but the legions of both camps refused to fight, and the pair were forced to renew their alliance. In 37 BC, an agreement was reached for Antony to exchange 120 ships for 20,000 soldiers from Octavian, however while Anthony sent the ships, the legions never arrived. By 35 BC, it was clear that both sides were secretly preparing for war. Octavian decided to conquer Illyricum, as an excuse to maintain his legions in the field. Meanwhile, Mark Anthony was constructing a massive navy supposedly for another invasion of Parthian Persia, although why he would need 400 ships to invade the Iranian plateau remains somewhat unclear. To justify yet another civil war, Octavian launched an inflammatory propaganda campaign against Anthony for the hearts and minds of Rome: with his lavish lifestyle Anthony was supposedly going native in the east; Anthony was married while openly the lover of Cleopatra; and Anthony was turning the east into a kingdom by granting his illegitimate children governorships over Armenia, Libya and Syria. The pretext for war finally came when Octavian illegally obtained Mark Anthony’s will, in which he stated his desire to be buried in Alexandria rather than Rome. In 32 BC, the Senate officially declared war on Anthony and Cleopatra's regime in Egypt; Antony's Civil War (32-30 BC). Mark Anthony immediately sailed for western Greece, settling his fleet in the Ambracian Gulf. However, while Octavian’s legions besieged him on-land, Agrippa led a daring raid on Anthony’s key supply hub to the south, leaving Anthony no choice but to retreat to Egypt. When Anthony sailed out of the gulf past the port town of Actium, Agrippa’s fleet was waiting. Agrippa had spent years fighting naval battles around Sicily, and easily outmatched Anthony’s ships. With the battle was going against them, Cleopatra fled to open sea without firing a shot. She was soon followed by Antony himself, and his remaining ships quickly surrendered. When Octavian pursued them to Egypt, Anthony tried one last battle, but even his attempt to die gloriously was a disaster; he was forced to watch as his navy and legions deserted. In the aftermath, in honourable Roman tradition, Mark Antony fell on his sword. Cleopatra tried to negotiate with Octavian for weeks, but when it became clear that he planned to annex Egypt and parade her through Rome in a triumph, she took her own life, according to familiar legend with an asp. Her son with Julius Caesar, Caesarion, was butchered without compunction, with Octavian remarking that "two Caesars are one too many". Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian was now the sole master of the Roman Empire. Category:Historical Periods